Thai minister backs Bangladesh workers

Thailand’s Labour Minister on Monday backed the fishing industry’s idea that its acute labour crisis could be eased by importing manpower from Bangladesh.

The National Fisheries Association of Thailand proposal surfaced on Jan 22 apparently as workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos showed the tendency to leave the job for better work, particularly at the factories.

The Bangkok Post reported the development in a report titled ‘Padermchai backs plan for Bangladeshi fishery workers’.

It was mentioned in the report that Minister Padermchai Sasomsap asked the ministry’s permanent-secretary Somkiat Chayasriwong ‘to study the process of bringing migrant workers in through a government-to-government labour programme’.

A sub-committee of the Illegal Alien Workers Management Committee will scrutinise the idea before being forwarded to the Cabinet for its approval, the report said.

Quoting unnamed sources, the report said the ministry will discuss a number of issues, including workers’ safety and job contracts, with the association for finding out ways to discourage migrant workers abandoning their jobs.

The fishery industry is facing a critical labour shortage, specifically in the South, the Minister was said to have admitted.

On Jan 22, the Thai fisheries association requested the Department of Employment for appointing 50,000 workers in the industry from Bangladesh. Of them, 10,000 would be employed on fishing boats operating outside of Thai waters.

The labour shortage is also reported to have prompted the fishery employers to hire migrant workers by illegal means.

The fishing industry thinks Bangladeshi workers are tough and hard working.